(27 Feb 2001) Eng/Albanian/Nat
Moving to contain spreading ethnic Albanian insurrection, U-S troops with the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force set up observation posts on Tuesday within shouting distance of a Macedonian village rocked by recent fighting between rebels and government troops.
As G-Is scanned the village of Tanusevci from Debelde, a Kosovo village on the boundary to Macedonia, NATO dispatched advisers to Macedonia to help the government there mount an effective challenge to the rebels.
Reacting to the recent violence, which sent hundreds of Tanusevci villagers fleeing into Kosovo, Macedonia's prime minister, Ljubco Georgievski, warned his government was prepared to take radical measures against the insurgents, whose activities have opened a new front in the volatile Kosovo region.
Georgievski talked to reporters one day after a firefight between Macedonian police and the military and ethnic Albanian insurgents in Tanusevci where Albanian groups opened fire on a police patrol, according to police sources.
A three-hour fight followed the army's subsequent involvement while the police withdrew.
No casualties were reported.
A new group of ethnic Albanian guerrillas, calling themselves a National Liberation Army, have been operating in the village.
It is unknown how much support they enjoy within Macedonia, home to a large ethnic Albanian minority.
But the violence has raised fears of a new front in the struggle by ethnic Albanian militants for independence.
In Pristina, Astrid Van Genderen Stort, UNHCR Spokeswoman, said that over the past week 383 ethnic Albanians, primarily women and children, had fled to Kosovo from the village.
Refugees who crossed the border into Kosovo said they had fled in fear, following the killing of an Albanian farmer last week and the massive build up of Macedonian security forces.
Macedonia's Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski Tuesday criticized NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo for what he claimed was insufficient monitoring of the border.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Yesterday afternoon we were asked to come here specifically over a concern of a large number of refugees that may be in the area coming from the south here. We arrived yesterday evening and remained through the night and will continue to be here to observe and report any activities that are going on to the south of the town of Debelde along the border."
SUPER CAPTION: Major Bill Burleson, US KFOR
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"As we arrived there were some gunshots in the hills to the south, but who was involved or what it was about and how it was occurring I did not have any knowledge. That's why I can't tell you"
SUPER CAPTION: Major Bill Burleson, US KFOR
SOUNDBITE: (Albanian)
"The army and police have based themselves in our village. Yesterday they started shelling all day long. We took our children we walked for six or seven hours through the mountains in the snow. Now we are here and we have to wait to see what will happen."
SUPER CAPTION: Hamdi Sinani, Refugee
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The UNHCR has registered so far 383 refugees that have entered from Macedonia over the past ten days. The last group of over 150 refugees have entered this weekend only."
SUPER CAPTION: Astrid Van Genderen Stort, UNHCR Spokeswoman
SOUNDBITE: (Albanian)
"Regarding the problems on the border between Macedonia and Kosovo, we have discussed and agreed that KFOR will provide maximum security along the borderline where we have to maintain control in order to secure stability in Kosovo."
SUPER CAPTION: Hashim Thaci, Albanian Political leader
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